User blog:Silent Andromeda/Hellfire: Chapter 19
Previous: Chapter 18 Dawn of the Third Day Dawn had come and an orange hue lit up the sky, while heavy fog surrounded the ground. Mark stood by the window of the abandoned building campsite. His three Panthers stood by his side. He knelt down and pet them. "This isn't going to be easy, boys. I hope your noses are still working, because the rest of us aren't going to see very well. Time to wake up our new friend." Mark walked over to Sardec, who was sleeping by Molly the Rhino's belly. "Rise and shine, son!" he said as he nudged Sardec's shoulder. Sardec flinched violently with a quick yelp, waking up Molly as a result. "Relax! You're safe with me. This war has really shaken you up." Mark reached out his hand. "Oh, right. Right. Sorry." Sardec grabbed Mark's hand and pulled himself up. "As long as you're calm but alert, this should be a breeze." "How are we going to go about this?" "We'll search for the nearest entrance that has the lowest security, then look around for any intel." "That's going to be tough. Everything in that base looks the same to me." "Don't stress too much. I've been there enough to recognize their patterns. They can be as organized as humans." Mark and Sardec stood by the entrance of the abandoned building. "Are you ready, Sardec?" "As ready as I can be in a place like this." "Good. Let's set off!" Unwelcome Presence Mark and Sardec traveled through the heavy fog, progressing through Mark's familiarity of the terrain. Sardec could only see several meters in front of him, placing all of his trust in Mark's sense of surrounding. Suddenly Mark commanded Sardec to stop. Sardec stopped in his tracks with his HBS-VI Phantom ready. Mark directed Sardec to lower his weapon. He set his Panthers forward into the fog. Sounds of a skirmish were heard. A couple of heavy thuds were heard and the Panthers returned to Mark. "Alright, let's go." He and Sardec walked forward and saw two mauled Chaos guards on the floor. They came up to a bulkhead door. Mark turned to his pets. "Sardec and I will take it from here. Go!" The Panthers whimpered. "Don't give me that. I'll be back soon enough. Now go!" The Panthers set off into the fog and Molly rubbed her head against Mark's chest. "You too girl. Get out of here!" Molly turned around and walked slowly into the fog. "Are you ready, Sardec?" Sardec switched his Phantom into a sword. "As I'll ever be." "Good. Remember to keep conflict at a low. Only engage if absolutely necessary." Sardec entered first and Mark shut the door behind. The Backdoor Inside, Sardec and Mark find themselves in a broad hallway leading to other rooms. "Where to?" Asked Sardec. "Honestly, this is one area that I've never seen before. Let's search the rooms." Mark readied his weapon. "'Crab'?" "How did you know my gun's name?" "Part of the cyborg enhancements. I can scan and identify objects and creatures." "That's perfect! I'll take point and you scan if the room is clear." Mark entered the room closest to him. The room was filled with unknown supplies. "Clear!" Sardec entered the room and took a look at the supplies. "It appears to be construction equipment. It's very simple storage." "Nothing useful then. Let's check the next room." Mark slowly approached the neighboring room, Crab pointing forward. "Empty." Mark checked the next room and also found it to be empty. "One room full of construction supplies and the rest are empty rooms? This sector isn't finished yet." "You missed a door." "Where?" "Over here." Sardec directed Mark to a wall. "A wall?" "Not quite." Sardec pressed against the wall and a hidden door opened. Mark was astounded. "Oh man. At this rate, we'll be done before the day ends." Past the hidden door was a connector to the main corridors. "Okay, this is looking familiar now. I haven't been here in a while. They probably have a new batch of fauna test subjects. The bio lab is a at the far east of the facility. At the far west is Murak's chamber. We'll avoid the west for now. We'll have to cut through storage to reach the bio lab. Let's get to the storage." Tactical Espionage Action Following the corridors leading east, Mark directed Sardec to stop. They stood in a wide room with a large door at the center. At the sides of the door were guard towers, each with a single guard posted. "Two guards. We'll have to take them out simultaneously to avoid an upheaval. Get your sword ready. Wait for my signal." Mark waited for the guards to turn away. Once they both turned away, he silently made his way to the other side of the room. Sardec followed Mark's lead and they both began climbing their corresponding guard towers. Before reaching the top, Mark stopped and Sardec mimicked. Mark counted down with his fingers. Upon reaching zero, he and Sardec reached over and pulled the guards down onto the floor. Sardec dropped down and stabbed his guard in the head while Mark dropped down and stomped on his guard's head. "The perks of having heavy armor" Mark chuckled. "Go ahead and see what's up on your tower, Sardec. I don't really like climbing things on account of my armor's weight." Sardec climbed up his guard tower and scanned the console he found. "It's a switch to open the door. Your tower also has a switch. They need to be activated simultaneously to open the door." "Damn. I need to do pull-ups more often." Mark climbed the tower and got to his console. "On three!" Said Sardec. "One! Two! Three!" They pressed at the same time and the door began opening. On the other side, they found themselves amongst various storage crates. "Welcome to storage, Sardec." Mark whispered. "Why are we whispering?" "Storage has fairer security. I've never been able to open the larger crates, but I've found basic blue Mithril and that thing you call 'VOID.'" "What do we do?" "Sneak up on one of the guards and stab it with your sword. Let it scream enough to alert the others. While they come, I'll take out the cameras. Are you alright with that?" "Sure." "Alright. Keep your head low." Sardec utilized the narrow passages created by the stacks of crates. He watched the guards closely and waited for one to wander alone. The time came and he snuck up to the guard. He tapped on its shoulder spike. The guard turned around, only for its chest to meet the tip of Sardec's blade. The guard let out a painful scream before being finished off. "Kurchak?" Asked another guard. "Geshtavet. Huxtew." Sardec heard the footsteps getting closer. Mark listened for their footsteps and began firing at the cameras with quick bursts. The plasma corroded at the cameras, causing them to malfunction. The guards came up to Sardec and had him cornered. Before they could retaliate, they were each shot in the back and fell forward. "That was fun." "You sure have a twisted standard for fun, Mark." Mark chuckled. "With the cameras out, they're going to send a team to investigate. Help me pry open one of these large crates so we can stuff the bodies in here." Sardec was amazed by Mark's tactic, as he never would have thought of these strageties himself. He looked around the crates and found one with a tattered panel. He jammed his sword behind the panel to pry it open, but to no avail. He took a close look at saw a couple of metal locks. "Mark. Come see this. You see those locks? Shoot them with your Crab. The corrosion should allow me to pry this open." "Good eye there, son. Let's see what I can do." Mark fired single shots onto the locks. He stepped aside and let Sardec try again with his sword. The locks broke and the panel opened. Sardec saw a large sack inside the crate with something glowing through it. He pulled it out and Mark stuffed the bodies inside the now empty crate. Curious about the crate's contents, Sardec unveiled the sack and saw golden crystals. "My god. That's Golden Mithril!" Said Mark. "Golden Mithril? There are Mithril variants?" "Just this one. Golden Mithril is highly radioactive. It's a good thing we got these suits on or the radiation would kill our skin." "Well we can't just leave it out here, right? They might try to put it in the crate and find the bodies." "Good thinking." Mark said as he pushed a heavy crate in front of the broken panel. "I hope your backpack is empty son. With this stuff in our backpacks, our equipment may become super charged. But make sure your backpack is not hit or things might get ugly." They both grabbed parts of the Golden Mithril and stuffed them in their backpacks. Slowly their armor, backpacks, and weapons became golden. "The bio lab is close. Double time!" R&D A door opened and the two men entered a room with glass tubes and creature organs. Mark took a look around. "No animal prisoners? What are they working on now? Reanimating dead tissue?" Sardec approached a console and a monitor display. "Mark! I found some documents." "Alright. What have these freaks been up to now?" "Accessing now... I found some reports. 'Subject: Speedling. Mithril consumption has shown genetic enhancements such as increase in size and raised aggression. Aging process accelerated as a negative result.'" "Back in my hay day, those things were everywhere, among other creature mutations." "There's more. 'Acid Bombers and Rhinos display no genetic influence by Mithril consumption. Golden Mithril experimentation resulted in instant death.'" "No wonder I never saw mutant variants of those." "Hang on. I found some documents for VOID too. 'Exported VOID material contains impressive amounts of energy. VOID has shown potential to bring inanimate objects to life. Radian's faction has reported floating constructs aiding Turauz resistance efforts. Cybernetic experiments with Mithril have failed. A common bond between materials has yet to be found.'" "These bastards! How can we possibly compete with their advancing research?" "What's this? 'Benedict Virus?'" "Say what?" "'Tissue extracted from deceased Kartinava unit 6066 possesses patterns similar to virus native to our home planet Hellus. Native virus attacks small creatures with weaker immune systems. Mixing with chemicals of Earth's atmosphere has enhanced the virus' corruption capabilities, at the cost of decreased host lifespan. Estimated time until total infection: 3 months. Virus does not travel further than direct host. Virus has been extracted from subject 6066 and has been stored for further research.' So they brought a virus from their home? What a bunch of suckers! I bet we could spread this thing and infect them all. But still. 3 months would be a long wait. So infect them, then hide until they die out? That would take too long!" As Sardec rambled on, Mark approached a metal table and reached into his backpack. He placed the Golden Mithril into a glass cylinder and began rummaging through the lab storage. "Even then, we'd have to continue to strike at their supplies. Maybe forced exercise would accelerate the infection process?" "Good ideas, Sardec. But none of them will be needed." Mark said as he placed a tray of VOID material on the table. "What are you doing, Mark?" "I'm doing science, Sardec." Mark placed a small glass capsule onto the table. "Say hello to the Benedict Virus." "THAT'S THE VIRUS!? BE CAREFUL WITH THAT!" "Relax, Sardec. It only affects the Kartinava." "You don't know that! The report said it doesn't spread beyond the original host." "Shut up and hand me that Golden Mithril." Mark said as he held the VOID material in his hand. "I don't know what you intend to do with this. Golden Mithril kills organisms. Remember?" "If there's one thing I remember from college, it's that viruses are neither living nor nonliving agents. This may be the common bond that they were looking for." Mark opened the capsule and removed the microscopic slide inside. He placed the slide between the Golden Mithril and VOID and waited a few minutes. He then placed the slide under a microscope and saw the virus randomly growing and shrinking in an erratic manner. "Come look at this, Sardec." Sardec looked through the microscope. "It's spazzing out. Well, at least it wasn't destroyed by the Golden Mithril. It seems unstable." "What do you say we go test it out?" "What are you talking about? You want to go capture a live Kartinava?" "I was thinking set it to be airborne." "So let me get this straight. You want to fill the air with traces of Golden Mithril radiation and VOID? What if we die?" "It won't attack us." "I'm having a hard time believing that. I don't care what the report said!" "Sardec, listen to me for a moment. UBW-594244 used to be the final sanctuary for mankind. That where I spent half of my life. Everything after the half point has been nothing but pain and failure. I lost all of my friends. I have no doubts that my family is dead too. Because of these aliens that came and took everything we fought for as a species. Every day, I worry about being found. I'm tired of hiding. I may be one life, but if I can use that life try to save the rest of our race, then so be it. As for you, you're a cyborg. If anything, that will slow down the process. If you want to leave Earth before I set this pathogen off, then I'll gladly escort you to a teleporter." Sardec stood there in silence. "Mark, I have no idea what this enhanced virus will do, but I will stand by and help you get it out there. My life has been under Kartinava rule from the beginning. The human farm was depressing. And ever since, I've been subject to constant nothing but horror after horror. Each day, I feel like I'm more likely to die. So you know what? Screw it. If it works, then great. If not, then the UNCC will have to kill all the Kartinava with their bare hands. At least I'll be free of this torture. I'm so tired of this unending star warfare." "We're both prisoners, Sardec. Let's at least try to escape. I'm glad you're on my side after all." "How will we get it in the air?" "I can use these preserved animal organs they have here to generate copies of the virus. We'll collect enough to send into Earth's atmosphere and kill every last one of them. Earth will be a free planet once more!" "Do you think you could make enough copies to wipe out 3 other planets?" "We can make as many as we want. At the top of Murak's palace is a ventilation device. It helps make the air in his living quarters more like Hellus. Very toxic to human lungs. I may be able to set it to disperse air outside the building rather than inside. If we can put the virus in there, we can get the virus airborne. Of course, that means confronting Murak. Sardec, the last time I confronted Murak, I lost all of my support and my Commander. I don't know if two people will be able to take him on." "We'll try anyway. All we need is a chance to get to that ventilation device without disturbance. I'm with you, Mark. Whatever it takes." "Then let's get to work!" Mark and Sardec gathered the creature organs and to make virus copies, preparing to extinguish the Kartinava and liberate planet Earth once and for all. Next: Chapter 20 Category:Blog posts